What does MUDA stand for? 

Muda

Muda is a Japanese word meaning "futility; uselessness; idleness; superfluity; waste; wastage; wastefulness", and is a key concept in the Toyota Production System as one of the three types of variation. Waste reduction is an effective way to increase profitability. Toyota merely picked up these three words beginning with the prefix mu-, which in Japan are widely recognized as a reference to a product improvement program or campaign. A process adds value by producing goods or providing a service that a customer will pay for. A process consumes resources and waste occurs when more resources are consumed than are necessary to produce the goods or provide the service that the customer actually wants. The attitudes and tools of the TPS heighten awareness and give whole new perspectives on identifying waste and therefore the unexploited opportunities associated with reducing waste. Muda has been given much greater attention as waste than the other two which means that whilst many Lean practitioners have learned to see muda they fail to see in the same prominence the variation of mura and muri. Thus while they are focused on getting their process under control they do not give enough time to process improvement by redesign.

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